How to Mitigate the Insider Threat

More and more IT pros are getting wise to the true nature of the insider threat. While the phrase generally conjures up images of a disgruntled admin actively sabotaging systems or stealing data to sell to competitors, they understand that the insider threat is much broader than that.

Most organizations have hundreds — if not thousands — of accounts with varying levels of privilege. Those users can misuse their permissions and do a lot of damage, even if they don’t have the same power as admins. Moreover, admins and users alike can make honest or careless mistakes that can result in a breach or downtime. And, of course, hackers can get control of legitimate user or admin credentials for your environment, transforming themselves from outside attackers into insider threats.